Firstly I began with the basic definition of montage from the online dictionary:
I already know that my piece will essentially be a montage because I am piecing together different imagery although all linked in theme isn't a continuous story. The next thing I wanted to do is work on good techniques for forming a montage so I decided to look into the theory surrounding montage and how it can effect the audience and be used. Here is the main theory I looked into:
- I began looking into theories about editing and montage by Sergei Eisenstein who was a Russian film maker in the 1920's and then went on to teach film theory. He talks about 5 different editing and montage approaches and styles and how they work. Here is a breakdown of what these are...
Metric Montage: This refers to the relevance of each shot to one another in terms of length. Regardless of what we see in the shot just by limiting the time the shot is on screen effects how much information the audience will take form this. By shortening the time the audience has to absorb information you are then building up the tension. A particular example I was given is that a close up very short length shots will create more of an intense experience for the audience. A lot of my shots will be close up so therefore this means I can apply this technique to create tension in the rite places and keep it intense for the audience.
Rhythmic Montage: This is talking about how continuity can still be apparent in shots that are unrelated through other visuals devices like matching the action of the direction of movement even colours and textures on screen etc. By doing this the sequence then can be built to be as rhythmic and therefore flowing as possible without jarring the audiences experience. However you can also use this technique to do the very opposite meaning you could deliberately show a conflict by having opposing imagery and direction of movement etc to express this. This means I need to think about the direction, colours, textures and shot styles I am using to try and create a rhythmic journey for my audience and only create a sense of aggravation through jarring when it is desired.
Tonal Montage: This is talking about how editing decision are made to establish and set a specific emotion to the scene or piece. This can change as the piece develops but all imagery would be chosen specifically for the emotion you want at that time therefore creating a tone to the piece as said in the name. It has be compared to the way that music can be used to convey emotion and tone strongly in film pieces. My own piece will have music to convey emotion but more importantly I have chosen visuals which do represent my emotional journey so creating the rite tone in editing is vital.
Overtonal Montage: This is referring to the way the 3 editing techniques above (Metric, Rhythmic and Tonal Montage) can be used all together to create a strong montage. It basically mixes pace, ideas and emotions together which will in tern make the audience feel and experience the desired effect much more strongly as a whole. Using all these techniques really is the best way for me when editing to build up a bigger picture.
Intellectual Montage: This is a way in which you actually introduce ideas into your piece through the highly charged emotional sequences. This means you use images which pieced together are actually making stamens about things and comparisons between the symbolic visuals to a real situation. This is used frequently to make political statements (almost like propaganda). I feel like this one least applies to my editing of the piece because I am not trying to make a statement but instead trying to demonstrate my journey and emotions which will be done with the other techniques Ive spoke about so far.
Looking into Eisenstein has been really helpful to draw my attention to appropriate montage techniques to create specific feelings etc. He himself was good at applying this technique to his own films and using it to create a lot of specific feeling before film was made easier to do that. The film images here are from his films 'October' & 'Potemkin' where he has applied his techniques and I can see this.
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